Beautiful Summer Days

There's this park.  It's well away from the road, with a man-made (but very believable) pond occupied by turtles, frogs and snails, a lovely little foot path with bridges (I love bridges), lots of trees, a great playground with plenty of seating, green grass, shade...it's perfect.  I love it there.  It takes me back to my teenage swamp-prowling, mud-tramping, frog-catching years.  After all, I hung out with my brothers a lot.

Looking for frogs.

John put a bug carcass on Joshua's t-shirt.  They both thought it was lovely, I was disgusted.  At first Joshua told me, "I will hide it with my hand, so you can't see it Mommy."  After a while, he decided chasing me with it was much more fun.  Oh yes, boys are boys, and nobody has to teach them how to do this well.  I finally got over it and took a picture for him-- grimacing all the while.  You can see the mischievous delight in his eyes.

I'm usually the one behind the camera, so here's a rare picture of me and my little man.  Still taken by me, I just realized, but it turned out pretty good.

I love beautiful summer days like this.

The Month of June...and July.

Well, blogging every day for a month did NOT develop a blogging habit, though it certainly developed a greater awareness that I wasn't blogging when I would have liked.  I guess that counts for something.  I have been preoccupied with so many things in the last six weeks that blogging became a much lesser priority. Or...maybe it wasn't so much priorities that kept me away, but my inability to manage time.  I get so caught up in the task at hand that I neglect everything else.  I really need to learn how to divide my days so I can accomplish more.

So a quick recap to get me up-to-date, and then perhaps I will do better....?

I've spent a large chunk of my time researching, looking into an anti-inflammatory/Candida diet to help my PGP, and trying to ease myself into it.  It's the most extreme thing I've done for my health as of yet, and extreme is often difficult.  I've had to work out a lot of kinks in my plan, dealing with hormones, low blood sugar, etc. but hopefully I've ironed all the problems out this time and can jump in head first.  The plan is to reduce inflammation so that I can be more consistent with my exercises, restoring my core and low back function to potentially eliminate my pain, though to what extent, is yet to be determined.

In addition to research, I was working on an afghan I have been crocheting for Joshua.  It's finally done and I was pretty happy with the results.  So was Joshua.

When Joshua saw it for the first time, he said, "WOW!  I can't believe it!  I love, love, love it!  Why did you make this for me, Mommy?"

"Because I love you."

"Awwww," he said, getting up and running across the room to kiss me.

Made every stitch worth it.

We've been taking Joshua to story time at the local library.  The librarian reads a book or two, teaches the kiddos some cute jingles, and plans a craft.  Joshua's first craft was a noodle head:

John and I both sit with Joshua during the story time, and afterwards he picks out a few books to take home and read at bedtime.  I peruse the library myself, and came across some books by Lemony Snicket: "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  I read the first page and couldn't resist the great humor and classic writing-style, so I read all 13 of the books in the series.  

One of Joshua's newest hobbies is painting.  We have a whole stack of pictures he has painted.  This is his first time:

Show me your muscles!

 Of course there has been more to life than just this, but if I were to recap any longer, I'd probably bore you to death-- if I haven't already.  Daily blogging is unrealistic for me, but I hope I manage to make more frequent appearances in the blogging world.  

Chutes and Ladders

Joshua played, loved, and won (fair and square) his first board game today.  

REAL LIFE

 All in a hard day's work, doing what toddlers are supposed to do.  Real life.

Typically, I believe in teaching kids to pick up their toys as they use them, but I have never had to do this with Joshua.  He's a pretty neat kid.  Then BAM!  He went crazy one day.  And of course it happened to be on a day when I could barely move to keep up with him.

*******

So real life gets "realer."  It always looks worse before it gets better.  The war zone inspired me to get rid of some toys and organize the ones we had (again).  It took two of us, me and my hunny, in the dark of the night.  I mean, have you ever tried getting rid of toys while the owner stands there watching and finding renewed joy in each cast-off toy?

JOY comes in the morning!  (I couldn't resist the urge to re-arrange furniture while we were at it; it makes cleaning and organizing so much more interesting).

I am pretty excited that Joshua has stopped living for his train table.  He's barely touched it in weeks.  That meant I could move it out of the living room.  Now we have SPACE and even better, a whole empty corner!!!

Yes, that's what my living room really looked like two days ago....and then, that's what it looks like now.  Tomorrow....who knows.  That's all part of real life.

June 9th

John's birthday.  I'm so grateful for his life, celebrated on this day and every other day in my heart, because I love him so much.  My best friend, my partner in crime, my confidante, my sidekick, and my lover.  The one who encourages my heart and who lets me see inside of his own.  The man who sticks with me through thick and thin, for better or for worse, and never falters in his strength.  My son's loving, caring, devoted Daddy. And pretty much everything in the world to me!  Happy birthday John!

We didn't plan much for the day.  There wasn't much we thought we could do during a sweltering heatwave and a temporary setback with my pain.  Then Rona called and we ended up going to her place and made use of her apartment's amazing outdoor pool.  Even I went in.  We picked up a pair of swim shorts on our way and they ended up too small.  I think I grabbed a Junior (girls) size by accident.  I sat on the edge of the pool in the glaring heat with my legs dangling over the side and Rona quickly talked me into coming in anyway, so when nobody was looking, in I went, jean shorts and all.  Ahhh! What refreshing fun!

Joshua showed no fear.  I was so proud of him.  He even jumped in from the side, with John there to catch him, of course.  Before long he was floating with the aid of his swimmies all on his own, kicking his way around, slowly inching across the water with his effort.  I think I'm going to look into swimming lessons for him this summer so he can keep up his confidence.  

Rona served a delicious lunch afterwards and the time passed so swiftly and pleasantly-- it ended up being the most relaxing day we've had in a long, long time.  

Looking through old pictures...this one portrays most accurately how I remember each of our personalities as children.  I love this picture.  (Derek was as nerdy as he looked).

Fresh Veggies...?

I'm slightly pessimistic about our new vegetable garden.  The location isn't as sunny as I feel a vegetable garden ought to be.  There are plenty of hungry, seed-loving critters around.  Um, I could list a lot of things, actually...but on the optimistic side if things go well, we will be eating fresh-from-the-garden carrots, spaghetti squash and corn.

Next week, if there's enough room in our small plot, I'd like (them) to plant a few more edibles, but Joshua picked the first round of seeds himself.  It's really his and John's project.

John had to dig up all the ground, first.  This was his second day at it.  Joshua stayed faithfully by his side through every minute of it.  He has become John's shadow.  A rototiller would have been faster and more effective, but after John discovered a random pipe of unknown origins, I am very glad that he stuck to the old-fashioned way.

Dirty face.

An ancient relic of the past, unearthed by John.  

Planting the seeds.

Oh, and my roses are in full bloom.  The bush is over 50 years old and it shows off hundreds of blooms every spring.